The Faculty sees 1950s paranoia transformed into 90s high school anxiety.
Directed by Robert Rodriguez and written by Kevin Williamson—fresh off his Scream-induced revitalisation of the slasher genre—The Faculty is a clever blend of alien body-snatching sci-fi and the teen angst of its era, wrapped in a letterman jacket and blasting a Discman. Yes, it’s very much a product of its time, but damn if it hasn’t aged better than most of the pop culture that defined the era, thanks to its sharp script and star-studded cast.
Celebrating 25 years since its release, The Faculty remains a cheeky nod to classic alien invasion movies, updated with enough 90s flair to serve as a nostalgic time capsule. At its heart, this is a high school Invasion of the Body Snatchers—except here, instead of McCarthy-era paranoia, the enemy is peer pressure and the subtle horror of sacrificing your identity to fit in. It’s a slick, self-aware horror flick that pays homage to the past while leaning into the irony-soaked vibe that Williamson particularly helped cultivate in the late ’90s.
The setting: Herrington High, your standard American high school, where the teachers are just a little too weird, and something’s definitely off. When our ragtag bunch of student stereotypes—including the nerdy Elijah Wood, bad boy Josh Hartnett, and popular girl Jordana Brewster—start noticing their teachers acting suspiciously (and let’s be honest, high school teachers always seem a little suspect), they gradually realise an alien invasion is afoot. The only thing standing between them and becoming the latest victims of mass conformity? Homemade drugs, of course.
It’s a premise that shouldn’t work but does, thanks in no small part to the film’s sense of humour and its obvious affection for the genre it’s riffing on. There’s a bit of The Thing here (the infamous “drug test” sequence), a splash of Alien, and even a wink to the pod people of yesteryear. But The Faculty has fun with it. Take, for example, the scene where an elderly teacher melts away in the school showers—it’s as much a tribute to body horror as it is a reminder that high school showers were a a weird and fundamentally horrific experience for pretty much everyone. Rodriguez keeps things snappy, with just enough tension to remind you that this is still a horror movie, even when it’s wearing a smirk.
Personifying that smirk is Josh Hartnett, somehow managing to make a guy who sells caffeine pills and homemade speed from the back of his car seem charming. His sardonic interplay with Famke Janssen’s character—a meek teacher who, after being alien-ified, becomes a seductress with a vendetta—epitomises the movie’s balance between horror and humour. Elijah Wood’s eternally wide-eyed expression makes you root for him, even if you’re not entirely convinced his character could outrun a gym teacher, let alone an alien invasion. Then again, he’s the guy who could just walk into Mordor.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a proper reflection on The Faculty without mentioning that cameo—Harry Knowles, the former internet movie fandom kingpin. At the time, his appearance was a playful nod to the online movie nerd community, but now, it’s a jarring reminder of how much has changed since 1998 and how much we’ve come to know – whether we wanted to or not. It’s the one part of the movie that really hasn’t aged well, even if the idea of a malevolent force hiding in plain sight is still thematically on point for the movie.
Looking back, The Faculty is a fun reminder of where horror was heading in the late ’90s—snappy, ironic, and just self-aware enough to keep you from ever taking it too seriously. It arrived in the midst of a horror renaissance, when the genre was finding its way back into mainstream coolness. Horror wasn’t trying to terrify you; it was still scary, but you were meant to be having a good time too.
The Faculty may have failed to light up the box office, but it sparked up a home as a cult classic once it hit home media. The film’s blending of sci-fi, horror, and teen drama is surprisingly enduring, and it’s no small feat that it helped accelerate the careers of its young cast—Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett, and Jordana Brewster among them—many of whom have since moved on to bigger things. And, of course, it’s a memorable notch in Robert Rodriguez’s eclectic belt, serving as proof that he could jump from gritty action to tongue-in-cheek genre fun with ease.
What makes The Faculty work is its refusal to take itself too seriously while still delivering a solid sci-fi horror flick. It’s a genre love letter for fans who know the beats of an alien invasion movie and want to see them play out with a teenage twist. It’s got all the hallmarks of 90s pop culture—grunge fashion, needle-drop soundtrack, and a fair share of snark—but underneath all that, it’s a reminder of why we love these stories in the first place: they’re just plain fun. And, if nothing else, The Faculty is the movie that taught a generation the questionable lesson that sometimes the best weapon against conformity is a well-timed wisecrack and a pocket full of homemade drugs.
